America’s drought, southeastern Asia’s floods and the Syrian civil war. Newshounds are constantly fed headlines fit to screw up your day, so whenever a story as inspirational as Maud Chifamba’s surfaces, it’s important to spread the love. Per CNN, Chifamba, 14, recently became Zimbabwe’s youngest-ever university student after enrolling for class at the University of Zimbabwe. But it’s Chifamba’s backstory that merits celebrating.

Born to a poor family in the Hunters resettlement community in Chegutu, central Zimbabwe, Maud lost her father when she was just five years old. Her mother also passed away last year. Her two brothers, who are general workers at a farm, were unable to pay the fees required to keep her at formal school so Maud started studying vigorously at home all by herself.